Worst Kept Secret In Camelot
by zombies-ate-my-brain
Summary: Everyone Already knew about the magic, it was the worst kept secret in Camelot. The problem was Merlin doesn't know that they know. A REVEAL FIC.


this is my first Merlin fanfiction. it is a reveal fic sort of. well it is a reveal fic with a twist, as arthur already knows if you read it you will understand. well i dont own merlin :( this is set in a AU between series 4 and series 5 so i apolgies for any mistakes. this is not beta read story but i have re read it three times to correct as much as i can so sorry for any mistakes. as it is my first fic on merlin fanbase i am hoping for review to inspire more stories :) hint hint

please enjoy people may be a smidge out of character i.e. merlin but onyl slightly as he is ill/poorly. well enjoy i own nothing.

**this is all thanks to the plot bunny taht popped into my head after readinga theory about arthur already knowing, which by the way would be a kinda cool way for the show to go a big huge five may be 6 season build up to the reveal only for Arthur to go " Already knew"**

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"I'm very confused Sire what exactly has happened?"Asked Gaius as he stood in Arthur's chambers.

"Merlin seems to have ran away" Arthur said, the other knights nodded in agreement to Arthur's conclusion.

"Ran away?" Gaius repeated his tone wary and worried.

"Yes Gaius, from what we have gathered after this morning's events Merlin just left" Leon informed him. His long hair went from the rain that had been pouring for three days straight in Camelot.

"What happened this morning Sire? Was someone hurt? What did Merlin do?" Gaius asked the worry and fear in his voice could have been heard by a death man. Arthur looked rather unease at this question as did the other knights, even Gwaine who normally had a placid look on his face.

"Gaius as you know Merlin hasn't been in the greatest health, he has had the flu that has been passed through put the lower town" Leon said.

"Yes I am aware he must have caught it from one of the patients he was helping me with"

"Any way this morning he came into work and he was sneezing and coughing everywhere it was rather disgusting, so I sent him to the armoury to clean our armour" Arthur said, Gaius nodded showing he understood what Arthur was saying.  
"Even though it is raining the knights still need practise and training so we all went to the armoury to collect what we would need for training...

_**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x. .x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x..x.x.**_

"it's raining Princess why do we have to train?" moaned Gwaine as he, Arthur, Percival and Leon made their way down to the armoury to collect the gear they would need for their practice session.

"Shut up Gwaine" Leon said not even looking towards his fellow knight.

"Why should I, I do not want to get wet when there is another option"  
"is that option by any chance the tavern?"Asked Arthur.

"Wow princess you can read minds, does Gwen know you can do that, bet that helps in the bedchamber- OW!" Gwaine cried after receiving a blow to the head form both Arthur and Elyan, who had recently joined the groups quest to the armoury.  
"Fine Elyan you are not invited to the tavern after training" Gwaine said childishly.  
"I DONT want to go to the tavern" Elyan said.

"No one does" Leon said earning sniggers from the men.  
"Fine I'll just ask Merlin he always goes to the tavern with me"

"You force him to the tavern" Elyan says shoving Gwaine.  
"I do not, well sometimes, but that is only when he complains about having to get up early to help the princess"

"Oh so it's you I have to blame for an annoyingly chirpy yet hung-over and late Merlin" Arthur said sending Gwaine a look. "Anyway Merlin has the flu so I doubt he would be willing to go anywhere but home"

"Is that where he is now?"Gwaine said, disapproval in his voice knowing that Merlin is in fact working right now when he should be in his room resting.  
"No he should be in the armoury, but if Merlin is the Merlin we know he will have left already" Arthur said.

They pushed their way into the armoury and like Arthur had said Merlin was in fact in the armoury but he was a sleep. Merlin's thing gangly from lay sprawled over a bench. His hair ruffled his nose red and big dark grey bags hung under his eyes. In his left hand was the polishing cloth.

"You really need to give him a day off once in a while" Leon said.

"HEY! I was expecting the idiot to go home he usually does" Arthur said in his own defence, deep down he knew he shouldn't have to, he was the king and could do what he liked with Merlin. But the knights are his friends and he valued their opinion and even though he would never admit it especially in front of Merlin he considered Merlin as a friend, a trusted friend. Percival stepped forward to shake Merlin awake.

"Merlin wake up" Percival said softly. Merlin groaned in his sleep but didn't wake. Some items around the room levitated. Gwaine sniggered.

"It amazes me" he muttered

"What does?"

"He keeps his magic a secret, yet he is not exactly subtle about it, it's any wonder how it took Arthur four years to figure it out" Gwaine sniggered.

"Yeah well shut up, he doesn't know that we know" Elyan scolded.

"Why can't we just tell him?"

"Because it is his secret and he will tell us when he feels ready" Leon said

"MERLIN YOU'RE LATE FOR WORK" half barked Arthur, Merlin shot up like a bolt the items around him fell with a clatter. His eyes widened, his just accidently did magic in his sleep and the King had saw him do so as well as his knights.

"Arthur I can explain-"Merlin started his voice raw with fear and sleep. Arthur held up a hand to silence him. From Merlin's eyes Arthur looked angry and deep in though about what he should do with him, execute him, banish him. But from everyone else all Arthur was doing was weighing out his options, either he could tell him now that he knew, or the other yet funnier way was to let him stew and drag it on for a little while. He came to his conclusion. He was going to drag it on.

Arthur turned to his knights gave them a small smirk that only they could see.

"You are dismissed" he said in his most kingly voice, full of serious authority. Gwaine had to control himself to keep the blank mask on his face as all he wanted to do was laugh. Elyan though thought of this as rather cruel. They turned and left leaving a very pale scared looking Merlin.

"Merlin" Arthur growled his voice serious and hard but inside he was full of amusement.

"Yes sire" Merlin whispered his head bowed like any respectful servant would.

"Did you or did you not just perform an act of sorcery?" Arthur whispered in a harsh tone.

"Yes I did sire" Merlin whispered his voice broke. Arthur looked at the younger boys face, the one thing Arthur has never been able to do is threaten Merlin officially. He could called him names, order him to do meaningless chores and speak ill of him to his face when he was angry but not once while doing to did Merlin ever look afraid of him. This infuriated Arthur a lot over the years, people at the sound of his name felt threatened and afraid but not Merlin. But now when Merlin's face looked broke, fearfully as if he had already accepted the penalty his father would have gave. Death. But instead of the feeling of accomplishment he would have felt back then, at the look of fear on Merlin's face caused by him he felt hurt. Did Merlin really feel like that, that Arthur would kill him, someone who he considered a trusted friend, would think of him as a cold blooded murder?

"I want to see you in my chambers in 10 minutes, and you even think about escaping Sorcerer I won't hesitate" Arthur spat at Merlin before turning around and heading to his chambers. Even to him his orders didn't make sense. But he was having a fun messing with Merlin's head. In a way it was his own harmless pay back for Merlin keeping his magic a secret.

"How did he take it? Mad that we knew and didn't tell him?" asked Gwaine a childish goofy smile plastered to his face.

"I've lost him" Arthur stated.

"You lost him. How?"

"Well I questioned him and said I expect to see him in my chambers in 10 minutes but he didn't show"

"You let a sorcerer you were going to question and probably kill alone?"Asked Leon.  
"He isn't and actual danger so I thought nothing of it"

"yes but he thinks you do, as far as Merlin knows you were just a few questions away from sentencing him to death, what do you expect him to do? Show up like a lost puppy and willing know he was going to die"

"DONT SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT SIR GWAINE I AM YOU KING!"Yelled Arthur at Gwaine. He wasn't really angry at Gwaine as he had said worse to him. He was angry because he was right.

"We should tell Gaius" Percival said.

"How are we so sure Gaius knows?"Asked Elyan.

"So naive" muttered Gwaine.

"Of course Gaius knows, EVERYONE knows accept Merlin" Arthur half yelled

**_.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x. _OF_FLASHBACK.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x._**

"And so we came to you"

"You are all fool" Gaius said, his tone tip toeing on anger.

"We know Gaius"

"But I don't think you do Sire. I don't think you realise what that boy has been through just to keep that secret from you all" Gaius said raising his voice slightly.

"I told you we should have told him" Elyan muttered.

"Yes you bloody well should have. That poor boy stresses his self out over and over again about this! He has panic attacks when he thinks you have figured it out and thinks you will sentence him to death!"

"I would never Gaius I swear on my mother's grave Merlin will not die via execution because of him practising magic"

"But that is just it; he doesn't practise it he was born with it which makes this even worse because he thinks he is an abomination having to live in fear because of how he was born! My lord the poor boy is out there in the rain, and he is poorly on top of it all!" Gaius yelled.

"I am sorry my lord I shouldn't have yelled at you" Gaius apologized straight away. Knowing he has just yelled at the king.

"No Gaius it is I who is sorry we should have told him we knew when we first found out"

"Which was when sire? If I may ask I am curious on how long you have known this?"

"Speaking for only myself here I had suspicions but it was confirmed until my quest to the Fisher King2

"But that was during your father's rein why didn't you say anything?"

"What and have him killed, I had known for a while that my father's beliefs were bias and blinded by revenge for mother's death"

"And you all found out then?"  
"No just Arthur and Gwaine I knew when the great dragon attacked the city, I may have had a broken arm and a bruised head but I was not blind or death" Leon said.

"Gaius do you know where he could possibly be?" asked Sir Percival.

"You are lucky we had planned for such a situation" Gaius said.

"What do you mean?"Asked Elyan.

"I had always feared ever since I learned of his magic that someone would find out and he would be arrested" Gaius said giving the men a look. "So I told him if was ever to be caught he was to escape from the dungeons and go to the very large old oak tree where we normally collect our main herb selection from and I would met him with some supplies so he could escape and last more than a few days"

"How far away is it?"Asked Leon, Elyan had already left to fetch the horses.

"Not sure on horseback sire as I have only walked this takes me about two hours sire"

_**.x.x.x.x. _JUMP.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**_

"Stay here I will speak to him I drove him this far and if you do it he may think of it as a trap" Arthur said dismounting from his horse and headed towards a small cave that was not far from the oak tree Gaius had let them too. The cave was damp and smelled of allege. Its floor was soaked in rain water and mud. It was colder in hear than it was outside but was lightly drier even though you could hear the quiet, drip of rain water seeping in.

"Merlin!" Arthur loudly but softy called out. He heard a shuffling. So Merlin was trying to hide from him. The cave may have looked small but in reality its inside walls were huge and deep. He was about to go in deep until he heard sneeze.

"Damn"groaned a voice.

"Merlin you idiot never any good at staying quiet were you" taunted Arthur, Merlin slowly but surely stepped on into the light Arthur had made with his torch.

"Arthu-Sire please-"started a scared voice

"Merlin I am going to stop you there. I knew we all already knew" he said.

"What?"

"We all knew about you magic, me, Gwaine, Leon, Elyan and Percival, Guinevere knew, we have for a while now"

"But back there in the-"

"It was a joke"

"A FUNY ONE TOO!" Called Gwaine's voice through the cave.

"It. Is. Not. Funny" growled Merlin. "I thought you were going to have been killed at dawn"

"Did you really think that?"  
"Yes"

"God you are even more of an idiot that I though and for that who will clean my room, was my clothes, muck out the stables...but before you even start that you can finish what you started in the armoury"

"fine you are an uttter...cabbage head and i hope you catch this cold"

"if i get you will be serving me had on foot 24/7 Merlin so be careful for what you wich for"Arthur said giving him a light shove.

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what did you think good? bad? okay? please give your honest opinion via a review and i love reviews i love reviews so much *puppy dog eyes* so please guys review for me. **REVIEW**


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